Discoveries: Arts and Culture

3:30 pm  Chris Kallmyer creates music based on the architecture of BAM/PFA.  It was very discordant and minimalist and pleasurable in its unexpectedness! We attended the final moments of the closing of the Berkeley Art Museum on the Solstice, in which one door would close and participants marched down to the structure of the new building under construction which will open in 2016. 4:00 pm  Performance artist Dohee Less says a ritual farewell to the space, with a Chinese flute accompanied by Chinese drums....and large cries, from a minority tradition. A quiet moment being appreciated in the shadows and light of this brutalist (starkly honest)(building.  Designated a Berkeley landmark  In the Movies:    The 1975 movie Mr. Ricco , starring Dean Martin, was filmed at BAM/PFA - the shootout scene exploits the dramatic sight lines of the atrium.  Sound designer Ben Bertt recorded the sound for the Star Wars trash compactor s...

Cat on Doorstep on Walk  Clark and Susan Coolidge  The crossed paws are "just too much"; what a lovely dog! 

A sleepy Santa Claus caught napping? Friend and Susan Coolidge admiring the traditional festive dress of Germany and Austria   Both of us bought home made liquors and I got the traditional stollen, which without, I would not have a Christmas.  Aren't all feasts related to foods?  We stopped at the very traditional Petaluma Creamery, and I bought a hostess gift, lemon icecream, with real Meyer lemon zest; absolutely perfect!   I recall that in Shanghai, I always attended the German market, as it was the only place to buy a wreath, a christmas tree, glug wine, and all the traditional items, associated with Christmas. 

The playwrights need a mention for this one, especially:  sisters, Margaret and Allison Engel, both with careers in journalism.  Allison is a media rep at USC her alma mater and Margaret runs the prestigious Alicia Patterson Foundation in Washington, DC. Margaret thinks Molly Ivins, a Smith College graduate, who got her Masters in journalism at Columbia University --became  an Ameican icon, and Allison, sees her as our " Mark Twain " who could balance the "corn pone" with the "high tone".  .  She said that when you laugh, people open up their ears and listen.  She was very honest and spoke truth, but in a humorous way.  Margaret adds, " Bill Moyers really said it best - "she made the mighty humble" and the "wicked ashamed."    Of her own career in journalism(which I considered, but was told it was not a safe job for a woman< --even after getting a journalism fellowship my freshman year to go to the University of Wis...

This orchestra in its 34th year never ceases to amaze.   Having been on tour to Europe, and to Carnegie Hall in New York, this year, it is as bright and intelligent, but never pedantic, as ever. McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford universities and has an OBE from the Queen in 2010 "for services to music overseas." Various recordings have won Grammy nominations, and best in the Classical music world  The orchestra plays in Palo Alto for the Stanford community as well as at Berkeley, and in San Francisco.  McGegan will play in Baltimore January 2-4 and again on February 12-15 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as well as in St Louis and Dallas.    Dominique La Belle sang beautifully, the Hayden, Ave Regina Coelorum in A major , with the Chorale directed by Bruce Lamott.  Then, she sang the Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741)  Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109) in D Major, RV 807, and Jan Dismas Zelenka's Missa Nativitatis Domini  both with Christoph...

Glittery Christmas Tree shining bright on Union Square, San Francisco, beneath moon... Palm leaf veiling Christmas Tree lit, over heart of mountains HAPPY HOLIDAYS Merry Christmas!  Peace and Joy of the Season from San Francisco 2014.    --Janet

Jane Wales, President and CEO of the World Affairs Council introduced Antonio de Lecea, Principle Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs, the Delegation of the EU to the USA.  Then a panel discussion ensued.   Mauro Battocchi, Consul General for Italy led off.   Nuno Mathias, Consul General of Portugal, concurred with him, and added a viewpoint.   Stefan Scluter, Consul General of Germany chimed in followed by Hugh von Meijenfeldt, Consult General of the Netherlands.  Hugo and I talked at length, and he introduced the other consuls to me.  I told him about my pro bono peace education contract with the Educational Reform projects in Kosovo and Macedonia, that I had completed for the EU.   The Dutch ambassador had been our donor.  Hugo is "green" and focusses on mutual investments in innovation, water and energy, food and nutrition, life science and health and creative industries.  His commitment has been to the Environ  He was an EU ...

Brilliant.  I do not know when an audience responded more enthusiastically! This play is an adaptation of the work of Daniil Kharms, who, having been arressted, was imprisoned and then died of starvation in the gulags.   "The Old Woman" is a novella written in the 1930's.   Carrying echoes of Samuel Beckett and Ionesco in its deadpan narrative, it follows the story of a struggling writer who cannot make peace with himself. The production was first partnered with the Spoleto Festival in Italy It is a Baryshnikov production.  It was also commissioned by The Theatre de la Ville-Paris/Festival, about which I  blogged a few weeks ago. .   Wilson chose the two, Dafoe and Baryshnikov, because they complement each other, and yet he says, "I think of the two as one:  the writer.  And during the course of the play they change: A becomes B and B becomes A, because A and B are one whole, not two."  Baryshnikov felt it was incredibly difficult to do,...

Originally staged at the Dublin Theater Festival in 20111- and retitled for Broadway in 2013 as "The Testament of Mary" -- Testament is " a lyrical and deeply human work ".  I most liked "The Master"(based on Henry James'life), Mothers and Sons, Brooklyn, and his reflections on Barcelona.  Toibin as a writer  has an uncanny ability to enter the character of his "mothers", especially  His father died when he was very young, and his mother raised him and his brother.   Testament recounts" i n riveting detail a defiant mother's story of her son, who has been taken from her by men she regards as fanatics ."  Having read the book, one keeps turning the pages, as the imagining of her thoughts and feelings are revealed, as the whole narrative of the Crucifixion unfolds. One can hardly put the book down; it is best read in one sitting. "The Assumption of the Virgin" (1518.  Titian.   High Altar of the Basilica de Sa...

MCConnell (who is a kind of celebrity due to his tv show on Nature for many years) introducing John Muir speaker  Harold W. Wood, Jr. Chair Sierra Club  John Muir Education Team.  Webmaster, Sierra Club John Muir Exhibition  on the web: www. johnmuir.info  Biography of John Muir  Harold Wood took us to Dunbar, Scotland , where John Muir is regarded as a "native son", and one of their most famous citizens, with the exception of Robert Burns, who was a favorite poet of John Muir. They have created a John Muir history hiking and cycling trail in Scotland, as well as a John Muir Way, in Dunbar, and have preserved his birthplace as a house museum, and have added an extensive education museum which since 2012 has had 100,000 visitors,  along with creation of curricula in the schools to educate children to see him as a model who preserves the environment.  This includes a graphic novel used in the high schools, and teachers research avail...

Diane Di Prima and Michael McClure in Exchange of readings  Susan and Clark Coolidge behind sunflowers while Clark eats lunch from Burmese restaurant where Celia, his daughter, and Susan, his wife and I had lunch at Burma Superstar on Telegraph and 48th.   Clark Coolidge,Poet and Drummer,  and Michael McClure, Poet ,  teaming in reading followed by Clark Coolidge solo concert on drums  Diane Di Prima celebrated her 80th birthday, with new publication by City Lights  which she signed for buyers after her reading  Clark Coolidge and musicians open celebration  of bookstore and cafe, "Commune'  with concert and poets reading  4779 Shattuck, Oakland, Opening of  "Commune" bookshop on November 16 2014

The play begins and ends with the hooded monks entering and exiting  on the stone "river" Noh Theater combines with the mystery play in this production by Benjamin Britten, a follow up to his adaptation of the Indonesian gamelan music, after visting Bali, heard in performance by the SF Symphony, conducted by MTT.  This opera "Curlew River" is incredibly moving.  An introductory note:  " Clear as a sky without a cloud/may be a mother's mind,/But darker than a starless night/With not one gleam, not one gleam, not one, /No gleam to show the way ." -- William Plomer, Curlew River (after Jruo Motomasa) This "visionary" production directed by Netia Jones, UK, stars tenor Ian Bostridge, and won acclaim in its world premiere at London's Barbican last fall.   Jones says, " Curlew River is an extraordinary and unique thing...."Benjamin Britten, returning from travels in the Far East..reimagined a noh theater production he had seen...

This show is in Lower Manhattan in a gallery for the week!  Look at Liza Dalby's website for details.  What a marvelous event!  Liza Darby, who lives in East Bay, is best known as a novelist, (go to Liza Dalby.com and the author of the wonderful book on Kimono), has a Phd from Stanford; she introduced us to Yoko Nishina the calligrapher with whom she collaborates.  She creates the scrolls and Yoko, the artwork.  They work with another artist, who lives in Kyoto, and did the painting backdrop to some of the calligraphy. A marvel!  Reminded me of how much I learned about calligraphy in Hangzhou as the calligraphy institute was located there in the Song dynasty along with some of the great calligraphers.  We are reminded that great calligraphers and poets materialized, because they were out of the government and developed these pursuits and became a "school" and significant in China's history. I remember my own calligraphy lessons and how when I went...